A virulent virus from outer space is threatening our very existence. Infected humans transform into callous and vicious robotic beings seemingly having the sole intention of working to infect the remaining uninfected humans. Quite the original movie theme, huh? Not….

Predictive programming elements:

The CDC (Center for Disease Control) is crucial in the attempt to alleviate the alien viral epidemic and is in no time engaged in trying to find an anti-viral cure in the form of inoculations, the no-questions-asked remedy in the movie. Therefore, it’s quite the unabashed white-wash advertisement campaign for vaccines, which is meant to help making the public feel more comfortable towards taking vaccines should the ‘occasion’ arise to do so.At the end of the movie, vaccines are widely administered to, of course, successfully counteract and squelch the vicious and pernicious alien viral epidemic. Quite cannily the word vaccines is verbally pronounced while the word solutions appears written on the screen. Therefore by wedding the two concepts in the eye of the viewer, the public is once again lured into believing the benign and life-saving qualities vaccines bring with them if applied.

In the movie it is quite soon discovered that the infected can be tricked into refraining assaulting those who remain uninfected if the latter abstain from showing emotion (towards the infected). By shutting themselves off from emotions, including all positive ones – such as compassion, towards the infected this will help widen the gap between the diseased and the healthy in the public’s eye.

All the work in trying to find a cure to the viral infection is being carried out at Fort Dietrich. This shameless act of propaganda may help to offset the effect of any bad allegations that this military laboratory has received in the mind of the public in that it is actually involved in creating viruses – such as the AIDS virus. Another PR attempt to white-wash the extent of a bad reputation in the public’s eye.

In the movie the police turn out to be just as receptive for infection as the other normal civilian groups. The military however, the movie likes us to believe, seems to be quite impervious to infection. Therefore, should a viral crisis be imposed on society the police should be trusted much less so than the military. This scenario may help to familiarize the public with a martial law situation in which the military has usurped the role of the police and entice them to accept this as being desirable.

The movie ends with the main character – Nicole Kidman, recalling the thought-provoking words somebody else spoke to her earlier in the movie:“In the right situation we’re all capable of the most terrible crimes. Imagine a world where this was not so, where every crisis did not result in a new atrocity, where every newspaper is not full of war and violence. This is to imagine a world where human beings cease to be human.”This deliberate act of recollection is remarkable and is therefore likely to serve a purpose. I conjecture that it may serve to subtly acquaint the public with the idea that ordinary humans are to blame for all the bloodshed in the world and that the only way to put an end to it is to stop us being human, i.e. to force us to accept modifications that indeed take away those qualities which make us human (brain-chip).